Australian ritual occult black metal band ‘MOON’ have now returned with their second album release ‘The Nine Gates’. With the albums concept based on the dark nature of human kind, it’s inspired by lunar [or the Moons] creatures which is combined with the raw atmospheric sounds of the black metal genre. The album starts with a very eerie slow sound and has a very haunting feel to it; this sets the atmosphere perfectly for this genre of music.

This album is just simply beautiful; it’s so dark and raw but soft at the same time drawing you into its depths and takes you on a haunting journey inside yourself. This is one album you need to listen to in the dark, late at night with no interruptions.

The vocals are deep and not as aggressive as you would usually find in this genre but have a doom like feel to them. It’s hard to concentrate and even write a review while listening to these tracks as I can feel myself losing focus and drifting away towards the darkness.

The keyboards are perfect in the tracks with the instruments being the main focus with the vocals being more in the background, there are also some great bass in the tracks too. With some tracks being over 7 minutes long, there is a calming effect to this album, with each track blending perfectly into each other.

It reminds me slightly of one of my favourite bands Darkspace, aswell as showing influences of old Burzum and Xasthur. The album has great sound and production and was mastered at Alchemix Studios by Marly Luske (Deep Purple), with cover art done by Tamar Jade. This album will appeal to those with a blackened soul that like their black metal dark, atmospheric and haunting. This is certainly an album that is going in my personal collection and shall be listened to a lot over these cold winter nights.